Corrigendum relating back to original notification defeats claim to concessional tax benefit under earlier notification

A corrigendum correcting an obvious clerical or printing error in a statutory notification relates back to the original notification date and does not operate as a fresh substantive notification. The correction was treated as ancillary to the power under section 4-B read with the relevant rules, not as a notification issued under section 25, so the six-month limit in section 25 was inapplicable. On that basis, the later corrigendum did not preserve the 1968 notification for the assessment years in question, and the assessee could not claim the concessional benefit on that footing. Revenue's revisions were upheld.

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Issues: Whether the corrigendum notification correcting the date of the earlier notification related back to the original notification so as to supersede the 1968 notification from the date of the 1974 notification, and whether the assessee was therefore entitled to the concessional benefit under section 4-B for the relevant assessment years.

Analysis: The corrigendum was not issued under section 25 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act and did not create a fresh notification from its own date. It was only a correction of an accidental printing error in the earlier notification. A correction operates from the date of the original notification and does not become an amendment merely because it is issued later. The notifications in question were issued under section 4-B read with the relevant rules, and the power to correct an obvious error was treated as ancillary to that substantive power. The contention based on the six-month limit in section 25 was therefore rejected, and the earlier notification could not be treated as continuing merely because of the mistaken date.

Conclusion: The corrigendum related back to the original notification date, and the assessee was not entitled to claim that the 1968 notification remained operative for the assessment years in question. The revisions were rightly allowed in favour of Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: A corrigendum correcting an obvious clerical or printing error in a statutory notification relates back to the original notification and does not operate as a new substantive notification from the date of the correction.

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